In late December 2023, when communities in the southeastern Peruvian province of Cotabambas received a copy of proposed modifications to the Las Bambas copper mine, they were at first surprised, and then frustrated. The document, which arrived between Christmas and New Year’s, contained a proposal to almost double the mining operation but lacked detailed studies […]
Environmental assassinations bad for business, new research shows
by Genevieve Belmaker on 20 January 2021
After years of research, economics experts say they can prove that financial markets respond swiftly and definitively when multinationals are publicly named in connection with the assassination of an environmental defender.
The researchers analyzed 354 assassinations over two decades connected to mining and extractive minerals projects around the world, noting particularly significant violent action in the Philippines and Peru.
Once a company is named, the data show that within 10 days the markets respond, hitting the company with a median loss in market capitalization of more than $100 million.
The old adage of “money talks” is being given a modern data analysis stress test and applied to the assassinations of civil society activists in the global mining sector. In fact, according to a trio of economics experts from Oxford University and Australia’s Monash Universit